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27 December: Eve Ainsworth

Carnegie Medal 2017 nominee Eve Ainsworth on Day 27!

Eve Ainsworth’s first Young Adult Novel published by Scholatsic, Seven Days, focused on bullying from the perspective of the bully and the bullied.Seven Days was a huge success, for which Eve was nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2016 and has won regional awards including the Wandsworth Teen Award and the Dudley Teen Prize. Her second YA Novel, Crush, is equally gripping, looking at the topic of abusive teenage relationships and is told with Eve’s warmth, humour and hope. This too has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal for 2017.

Name three things on your Christmas list this year! Family-time, laughter and books.

Christmas is a time of family traditions – what are your best (or worst!) family traditions? Christmas Eve at my mum’s is a favourite tradition – freshly made mince pies and mulled wine with my crazy family and all the excitement to come! A silly tradition is our Secret Scrooge. The family does it every year – finding the worst/most useless present they can for a pound and exchanging it on Boxing day – it’s heaps of fun, but you end up with a load of rubbish that you don’t really don’t need. I honestly don’t think we have a bad tradition – I love them all whether they are silly, fun or crazy.

What is your favourite story to read at Christmas? It has to be A Christmas Carol doesn’t it!?! What better story to curl up in front of a warm fire and get into the Christmassy mood.

If you could have Christmas dinner with anyone (alive today or person from history) who would it be? David Bowie because he’s my hero, Andrew Lincoln (Rick from Breaking Bad) because, well he’s so yummy and Charlie Brooker because he is very clever and funny.

You write about some difficult issues in your books Crush and Seven Days. What would your advice be to a young person experiencing similar difficulties to help them get through the festive season, which can sometimes be an even more emotional time?Christmas can be hard when you are going through a difficult time so you need to be kind to yourself. Give yourself space if you need it and don’t be afraid to talk to someone you trust if you need to. If it’s all too hectic and crazy, give yourself some calm time doing something that makes you feel more at peace and relaxed. Above all, don’t put pressure on yourself. Sometimes there is this belief that EVERYONE must be happy and having fun at Christmas and this is really not the case. Many of us struggle at this time – you are not alone.

(Great advice)

If you could give Anna, the central character in Crush, a Christmas gift what would it be?An acoustic guitar so she could learn to play.

Reader’s question from children at the Inkpots Writers’ Hut; how long do you write for per day? I write 1,000 words a day. Sometimes it takes an hour – sometimes much, much longer….

Turkey or goose? Turkey

Real or fake tree? Real! My tree is fake but I prefer real – the smell is so gorgeous!

Mince pies or Christmas pudding? Mince pies – especially my mums.

Stockings – end of the bed or over the fireplace? End of bed of course (although it makes it tricky for Santa).